Navistar, CAW Deadlocked on Ontario Plant Talks

The Canadian Auto Workers said it has rejected a proposal from Navistar International Corp. to keep the company’s Chatham, Ontario, heavy-duty truck plant open, while a Navistar spokesman said the plant will remain closed until a new labor agreement is reached.

Navistar closed its only heavy-duty truck plant in North America outside of Mexico last week when the union contract expired and said it would reopen the factory only if a new agreement allowed it production “flexibility” and the option to run a “much smaller operation.” (Click here for related print-edition story.)

CAW President Ken Lewenza said the union is seeking “a real commitment  . . . on the future of this plant. So far, what we’ve seen from Navistar only include eliminating hundreds of jobs and moving production out of the country to the United States and Mexico.”

With the expiration of the contract last Tuesday, Navistar has laid off the 350 remaining workers in addition to 800 already on layoff, with no recall date set, the union said in a statement.

Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said Navistar had complied with Canadian law by announcing in advance that it would layoff all workers on the plant on July 1, the day after the CAW contract expired.

“We had previously announced that our new Escobedo, Mexico, [Class 8 truck] plant would be the primary factory while the Chatham plant is closed to build our over-the-road tractors and, with the order board light anyway, we’ll have no problem fulfilling all orders out of Escobedo,” Wiley told Transport Topics.

By Transport Topics

Staff Reporter Frederick Kiel contributed to this story.